Chasing Stars
by obsidianrapture
Summary: Harry was fairly sure that there was at least one rule stating that students were not allowed to lie on the Great Hall's dining tables to gaze at the enchanted ceiling in the middle of the night.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: A short (and really random) one shot! I might develop this into a full-length fic if response is good :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

"What would the world be like without magic, Harry?"

"I don't know. Boring, perhaps?"

To be honest, Harry had never considered that question before. To him, magic was everything. It was what differentiated Hary the hero from Harry the scrawny boy who lived in the cupboard under the stars.

"Think about it, Harry, just imagine! Imagine if we didn't have Apparition and Floo Powder and talking portraits!" Ginny nudged Harry in the ribs as her voice rose in excitement.

"Shhhhh! We'll get caught by Filch if you get any louder!" Harry whispered, clapping a hand over her mouth. Six years in Hogwarts wasn't enough time to commit Filch's entire list of school rules to memory, but he was fairly sure that there was at least one rule stating that students were not allowed to lie on the Great Hall's dining tables to gaze at the enchanted ceiling in the middle of the night.

"Well, it was you who suggested this, Mister Potter! What kind of boyfriend takes his girlfriend on a date in the Great Hall?" Ginny huffed, turning over to lie on her side.

"How was I supposed to know that it would be so cloudy tonight? You know I've been failing Divination all year... plus this is the only other place in the whole school where there're stars! I did promise to take you star gazing on your birthday, Ginny...so can't you make do with this? They're not REAL stars, but they're still stars! And they're quite pretty too, don't you think?"

"Quite pretty...but definitely not as pretty as the real ones."

"C'mon, don't be a spoilsport! This enchanted ceiling is Dumbledore's magic, it looks amazing! Look, you can see the constellations and the Milky Way!"

"I know what's your favorite constellation, Harry." Ginny said in all seriousness, turning over to face him again, holding his gaze. He wasn't sure what she was up to this time, but he guessed it was going to be something romantic. They were, after all, lying underneath a star studded galaxy.

"What?" Harry was pretty sure he had all the constellations from his astronomy textbook memorised, but somehow, looking into Ginny's eyes made him forget every single thing he had ever learnt in school. The answer didn't matter anymore, as Harry leaned in for the kiss, closing his eyes in anticipation.

"It's Draco." Ginny snickered, pushing him away playfully.

"Very funny, Ginny. Very funny."

"Aww, don't be mad. Am I not allowed to joke on my birthday? Oh, look it's a shooting star! Quick, make a wish!" Ginny clasped her hands to her chest and closed her eyes, a look of intense concentration coming over her face.

Watching her make her wish in all earnestness, Harry couldn't help smiling to himself for a moment before he, too, shut his eyes and clasped his hands together.

His favourite constellation was the one with Sirius in it.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Came up with this while I was at work today! (Pencilx I know I still owe you a fic! still working on that one XD)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

"You can't come with us. This isn't a game, I don't want you to get hurt. " Harry said, unable to hide the tone of desperation in his voice as his fingers traced the contours of her cheekbones, ever so prominent under her pale skin.

"Don't tell me things like that, Harry. You know I can come with you, you know I'm good enough to fight." She pushed his fingers away brusquely as she stared evenly back at him, a steely glint in her eyes.

(Sometimes, Harry wished he was just a little taller so he wouldn't feel threatened every time she glared directly into his eyes.)

"It's not about that, Ginny. I'm doing this for Sirius and Dumbledore and my parents, and I don't want…" How could he explain how he felt? How could he explain the mixture of pain, and longing and anguish churning in his heart? How could he tell her he didn't want her to come because he didn't want her to see the horrors he had seen? The high, cold laughter of Voldemort, the sneers of the Death Eaters, the curses and screams that haunted him in his dreams every night, how could he tell her that this was what he wanted to protect her from?

Would she understand?

"You don't want to? This isn't about what you want, Harry, it's what I want too! What about my feelings? You're a selfish prick, Harry Potter, do you know that?"

She stalked off in anger, slamming the kitchen door behind her.

* * *

He found her at the far end of the garden, sitting on the crumbling brick wall.

"Hey." He clambered up to sit beside her, but all she did was sniff and edge away.

"Still mad at me?"

She turned her face away.

"C'mon, Ginny, you know I was just…"

"Just what? Just being a git? Just being a selfish dungbrain? What, Harry, what exactly do you want?" Ginny prodded at Harry's chest with her index finger, jabbing it harder with every word she said. She glowered at him, waiting for him to give her an answer.

The rays of the setting sun behind her gave her already flaming red hair an even more fiery look, which, coupled with the blazing fire in her eyes and the tinge of pink in her cheeks, made her look as if she was encased in some sort of shimmering, ethereal fire.

"You look beautiful like this. " Harry blurted out, immediately regretting his words as Ginny's expression changed from angry to furious.

"This isn't a joke, Harry!"

Harry couldn't help noticing, however, that a small smile was playing on the corner of her lips.

Here goes nothing, he thought.

Mustering up all the courage he had, he reached out and clasped her face in his hands. Assuming the most intense and focused expression he had, he drew himself closer and uttered a proclamation of love so passionate that his ears turned red from the embarrassment of saying it.

"Oh, Harry!" Ginny sighed, unsure of whether to be angry anymore. Her expression lightened considerably and he heaved a sigh of relief. He made a mental note to thank Fred and George for helping him come up with and memorise that long and mushy confession. It really did come in useful in times of 'emergencies'.

"You're not mad anymore, right? Let's just kiss and make up, shall we?"

"Kiss and make up? What kind of person do you think I am?"

But she was giggling now, and Harry had never been so glad to hear her laugh, even if she was still pretending to be mad. He wanted to hear her laughter all his life. He couldn't let Voldemort take her laughter away, not now, not ever.

"Just one kiss?"

"No! What's wrong with you!?"

"One, just one!"

In the midst of his attempts to kiss her and her attempts to push him away, they lost their balance and fell off the wall onto the grass below. They lay in the thick grass, breathing hard as they looked up at the sky.

"The stars are coming out, Ginny."

"Remember when you said you'd take me star gazing on my birthday?"

"The only couple in Hogwarts' history to star gaze in the Great Hall? Of course I remember, I was so sure Filch was going to get us that time."

"You have an invisibility cloak, Harry. Learn how to use it next time. "

"Oh right! I should have brought it along, we wouldn't have had to be chased all over the castle by raging Filch then."

"You know that shooting star we saw before Filch spotted us?"

"Yes?" Harry edged closer to her and held her hand, feeling its comforting warmth in his palm.

"I made a wish on it. I wished we'd be together forever." Her voice was starting to tremble.

"You don't have to wish for that, isn't it a given? We _will_ be together forever." He said, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"You'll come back, right? After it ends?" She blinked back her tears, biting on her lower lip to stop herself from sobbing.

"Wait for me, Ginny. I promise I'll come back, after it ends. Next year, next year, on your birthday, we'll go star gazing, alright? Proper star gazing this time, I promise. We'll go to the beach, and we'll lie on the sand all night and do nothing but look at the stars. You'd like that, won't you?"

He knew she was crying, but he couldn't bear to look.

" The stars will be with you, Ginny, every single night, until I come back. When you see them winking at you like this, you'll know that somewhere out there, I'll be looking at the same constellations and thinking of you."

"You will?"

"I promise I will, Ginny, I swear upon the stars."


	3. Chapter 3

The sky and the sea were the exact same shade of deep, midnight blue. The moon was an incandescent orb hanging low in the night sky.

It's a full moon again, she noticed. The thirteenth full moon since his leaving.

Grabbing a handful of sand, she watched as it trickled through her fingertips, until all that was left in her palm was a few lonely grains. Grains that had been left behind, she thought. Just like her.

Thirteen full moons and no news from him.

The thought seemed to infuriate her as she seized another handful of sand in a moment of rage and flung it into the waves, watching as the individual grains soared through the air and fell soundlessly into the dark waters.

"You're a jerk, Harry Potter," she said aloud to no one in particular.

"Don't you even have time to write? Not even two words telling me you're still alive out there? Do you even care?"

But the only answer to her questions was the sound of the waves lapping gently against the shore. Frustrated and helpless, she flopped back onto the sand and lay eagle spread on the beach. The sand was strangely warm as it shifted to accommodate the shape of her body, enveloping her in its snug embrace.

There were no stars out tonight.

For the first time in a long while, Ginny Weasley began to cry.

* * *

A storm was brewing. There was a red glow in the rapidly darkening sky that suggested a thunderstorm was well on its way.

Harry Potter, the 'jerk' in question, was sitting at the top of a rocky cliff. Waves were crashing onto the rocks below, sending sprays of white foam flying upwards. It was a magnificent sight, but Harry was unaware of this – he had been staring blankly out at the calm surface of the sea for the past hour.

"Blimey, Harry! How long have you been here?"

Harry turned to see Ron Weasley standing behind him looking bewildered, and extremely dishelleved. His hair had been blown about by the wind so much that it made him look as though there was a ball of fire around his head.

Like Ginny's hair, he thought, and the wave of memories and longing hit him again, so acute that it sent him reeling in pain.

A low rumble of thunder echoed in the distance.

"Do you think the stars will be out tonight?" Harry asked.

"What on earth are you talking about? Let's get back to the tent before Hermione throws a fit about us wandering off. She can be a total banshee sometimes, you know." Ron shuddered as he thought of the last time Hermione flew into a blazing rage after the two of them had 'wandered off'. He grabbed Harry by the arm and dragged him to his feet, pulling him along in the general direction of the tent.

Fat, heavy raindrops began pelting down onto the boys and they broke into a run.

"I hate getting wet!" Ron shouted over the sound of the rain as they made a mad dash through the woods.

Harry, however was grateful for the rain – it hid his tears well.


	4. Chapter 4

It was the Chamber of Secrets. She knew it – the walls coated with slime, the still, damp air – it couldn't be anywhere else. She knew this place so well, too well.

She called his name, her voice frantic. There was a basilisk in here, she was sure of it, a basilisk with fangs that dripped lethal poison and a literal death glare. She had to find him and they had to get out of here, before it found them.

She rounded a corner and saw him slumped motionless against a wall. Her face paled as she fell to her knees at his side, shaking him hard. Somewhere in the distance, the pipes began to creak and she knew it was coming.

"He's dead, and you'll be joining him soon." Tom Riddle's high, cold laughter reverberated through the chamber as he appeared suddenly behind her.

"He's not dead!" She would never believe it, even though she knew the body she was holding was as cold and lifeless as a corpse.

A dark shadow loomed behind Riddle, growing bigger every second. As much as she knew not to look up, some compelling force seemed to force her eyes upwards until she met those bulbous yellow eyes. And the world turned black.

* * *

Ginny woke up with a start, breathing heavily as she looked around wildly, disoriented. A sigh of relief escaped her lips when she realized she was in her own bed, at the Burrow.

It was a dream, she thought, he's all right.

The thought of him sent a fresh wave of worry through her head. He was only seventeen, too young to face all this. Please let him be alright, she prayed silently, clasping her hands together.

"Ginny?"

Startled, she turned to face the source of the voice. And there, silhouetted against the light from her half open door, stood a very familiar figure.

"Harry?"

And before she knew it, she was locked in his tight, bone-crushing hug. The warmth of his body against her cheek, the crush of his arms as they encircled her seemed to make up for all the worry and fear and anguish she had suffered in the last few months. He nudged the door shut behind him, leaving them alone in the semi-darkness of her room.

After what seemed to be an eternity, he broke free of their embrace.

"I need to tell you something."

His voice was rough, pained even, as he looked into her eyes, trying not to lose himself in them like he had so many times before.

This wasn't him, she knew. This wasn't her Harry. This disheveled person standing in front of her, he wasn't her warm, kind Harry. He was different. She knew something was wrong.

"Let's break up."

How could three words, each one so short and so simple, hurt so much? Ginny felt as though she had been hit by a train as the meaning of those words took effect. She stumbled backwards, as if suddenly afraid of the person before her.

"Why?" Even speaking seemed to hurt now.

"I can't date you anymore. There's this other girl, this other girl I like now."

"You don't like me anymore?" It was only pride and shock that was preventing her from breaking down into a sobbing wreck, from clutching at his robes, from begging him not to leave. She willed herself not to cry, but the tears would not be held back by sheer willpower alone and so they fell, trickling uncontrollably down her cheeks.

"Let's just end it here."

He turned and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Harry leaned heavily on the door as he shut it behind him, breathing deeply. His legs gave way at last, and he sank to the floor. What had he done? He ran his fingers though his hair as the expressionless face he had maintained crumpled to reveal raw agony. He felt like a murderer, a criminal. He had stabbed the heart which loved him.

* * *

" I can't do that to her! Not when she's been waiting all this while! Not when I love her so much!"

"It's precisely because you love her that you have to keep her safe! Do you think Voldemort will spare her because you love her? He'll kill her! He'll kill everyone you love because he knows you're too noble to let anyone suffer in your place! He wants you to surrender, Harry, but you can't! Don't you understand?"

"What am I going to tell her? You know what she's like! The more I try to stop her, the more she'll want to come and fight with us!"

"Then tell her…tell her you're in love with someone else!"

"What? Who? She won't believe me!"

"I don't care who! You can say it's Millicent Bulstrode for all I care, as long as you convince her!"

"But...she...I can't do this!"

"She'll be fine, Harry! Just do it before Voldemort finds her!" Hermione was thoroughly annoyed now. It was hard enough being the rational side of this mission, and things only got worse when Harry refused to cooperate.

"DO IT!"

* * *

Harry could hear her muffled sobs through the thin wooden door. This was enough to drive him crazy, even before he had found those Horcruxes. Part of him wanted to give up the search already and burst through the door behind him to take back all he had said just now. They could all be killed by Voldemort for all he cared. They were all going to die anyway, weren't they?

"I knew you wouldn't be able to leave, so I came to get you. Let's go before the rest of the Weasleys beat you up for being a total git when they wake up in the morning." Hermione, who had appeared suddenly beside him, seized his shoulder and began to pull him away from the door.

"But…but…" Harry made a feeble attempt to point at the door but his arms drooped and hung limply at his sides.

"Stop blubbering like a fool, Harry! It's only temporary!" Hermione snapped as she dragged him down the stairs, throwing his invisibility cloak over the two of them for good measure.

The freezing wind in the garden seemed to jerk Harry to his senses. He regained his composure and was momentarily embarrassed that Hermione had seen him looking like a total wreck moments ago.

"What are we doing now?"

"Back to the tent, of course! We've still got Horcruxes to steal, remember?" Hermione gave him a friendly bop on the head before they Disapparated.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Sorry about this really really short one! There'll be more coming soon!:)

The multicoloured beach ball rolled over and came to a halt at Harry's feet. He picked it up hesitantly.

"Can I have it back, please?" The little boy with the jet black hair ran up to him and stretched out his hands for the ball.

"Sure." Harry handed him the ball with a small smile and watched as he ran back to his parents on the far end of the beach.

Harry watched as the Muggle family resumed their game, tossing the ball around, seemingly unaware of the chaos in the wizarding world that was unfolding all around them.

"Thinking again?" Hermione appeared beside him without any warning and he jumped. He had never really gotten used to her silent, and terrifyingly accurate Apparition.

"How did you know I was here?"

"By logical deduction, of course. You usually come here when you need time alone."

"If you know I need time alone, why do you always come and join me then? That defeats my purpose in coming here, you know."

"I know." Hermione fell silent suddenly, lost for words. She rarely lost an argument, but when it came to Harry, she didn't know what to tell him anymore.

"I could have been that boy if my parents were still alive," Harry said as he looked in the direction of the blissful Muggle family and felt that familiar ache in his heart start up again. He wasn't sure what it was – somewhere between the sharp pangs of longing and the bitterness of jealousy, perhaps. "You don't know what I would give to be that boy right now."

"Harry," Hermione started, but her voice faltered and she did not continue.

"I wish they'd taken me along when they died. I'm tired, Hermione, I'm tired of pretending to be brave and noble and strong. I'm not all those things, I didn't ask for this! I didn't ask them to die for me, or to leave me with all these gifts. I didn't ask to be born at the end of July, I don't want any of this! All I want is to be a normal kid, I want to have my parents send me off at King's Cross, to unwrap presents with me on Christmas Day, heck, I even wish my mum could send me a few Howlers every now and then! That's the kind of life I want! I don't want to protect anyone, or to make sacrifices or…"

Harry's angry rant stopped abruptly as Hermione enveloped him in a bone-crushing hug.

Or to give up Ginny, he thought, as he let himself sink into her embrace.

"It's going to be all right, Harry, it's going to be all right".

For a moment, Harry was sure he saw Hermione as Ginny as she smiled at him. But he blinked, and she was gone, and only his best friend was left running across the sand.

Wait, running?

Harry took off after her but she had too much of a headstart. He arrived beside her, breathless, just in time to hear her say, "Do you mind if we join you in a game?"

"What?!"

But the beach ball was in his hands, and soon, he was having more fun than he had in a very long while.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Here's a longer chapter as promised!:)

Ginny Weasley was staring out of the window at the clear blue waters of the lake. They glittered temptingly under the sunlight, and she could almost hear them calling out to her. She wondered what it would be like to plunge herself headfirst into those waters, letting the cold envelope her as she sank towards the bottom of the lake. Drowning was one of the worst ways to die, she had heard that somewhere before. A drowning person almost always knows he's going to die, and he lives with that thought until the moment his oxygen starved brain shuts down and he sinks, slowly, down to his watery grave.

Ginny felt like she was drowning, every single day. All her memories of him seemed to have turned into lead overnight, and they were pulling her downwards into the dark watery depths of nothingness. She tried to fight them at first, pushing them back to the back of her mind, but they would not be hidden away. She grew tired, and numb and eventually resigned herself letting them rip her apart from inside. Could real death be any worse than this? Or maybe, maybe death could end her suffering...

"Weasley! Are you listening?" Professor McGonagall's crisp voice cut across Ginny's thoughts abruptly as she snapped out of her reverie.

"Oh..yes I am, Professor." Ginny stuttered as she suddenly became aware of how the entire class was staring at her. It wasn't like Ginny to be daydreaming in class, but things had changed over the holidays. Ginny Weasley just wasn't Ginny Weasley anymore.

"Good. Now, as I was saying, the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law are…" Ginny turned to the window again as Professor McGonagall continued with her lesson.

Time seemed to crawl as the lesson went on and on. When the bell finally rang an eternity later, Ginny was the first to spring out of her seat. She couldn't stand being in this classroom anymore, not when she had chosen her seat because it was where he had sat last year. Not when she had, just a few months ago, been so madly in love with him that she had scratched his initials into the table. The hastily carved letters on the table had never failed to bring a small, secret smile to her lips when she saw them, but now every mark she made on that table felt like a stab in her heart.

She rushed down the corridor, avoiding everyone she knew until she collided into somebody on the stairs.

"Oh, it's you." Luna Lovegood looked up from her copy of the Quibbler and smiled at Ginny in her usual dreamy way.

"Hi, Luna." Ginny muttered before brushing past her quickly.

There seemed to be nowhere in the castle she could go now, their memories were everywhere. She almost laughed drily to herself as she remembered how she used to chide him for being unromantic – she never understood why they had to have dates in boring places like the Great Hall and the Astronomy Tower. Now, she knew why. He had left shadows of himself everywhere. She saw him, eagle spread on the grass beside the lake, lounging against the wall outside the Room of Requirement waiting for her, curled up in his favourite armchair in their common room. He must have wanted her to never be able to forget him.

She ended up at Hagrid's hut and was about to knock on his door when she decided that she didn't know what to tell him anyway. She retreated into his vegetable patch instead and was unpleasantly surprised to find Luna Lovegood leaning against a giant pumpkin.

"Luna! What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you, and oh, I was looking for Nargles."

"What in the name of Merlin's beard is a NARGLE? And how on earth did you know I would come here…"

"Nargles, they're everywhere! I'm sure the only reason I haven't caught one is because I haven't looked closely enough! Don't worry about me, I'll find one soon! As for your second question, I figured that Hagrid's giant vegetables make great listening partners and you looked like you were in need of a listening partner, so here I am! I mean, I'm not a vegetable, though I could possibly be one, but I can listen to you much better than a vegetable can!" Luna smiled brightly as she patted Ginny's head gently.

Ginny wasn't sure whether she should laugh or cry. She decided that the latter would be more appropriate and promptly burst into tears. She hadn't cried at all, not since that night, and all those bottled up feelings were killing her.

"I don't understand! Why? Why would he go off and like someone else? I prayed for his safety every single day, I loved him like…I don't know what! I thought we'd be together forever and then he goes off with some other person I don't even know! I wish he would…" She wanted to say it, to wish a horrible death upon him, but the words wouldn't come out.

"Maybe it's not true? How do you know he wasn't lying? Did you have a Sneakoscope with you then?"

"He doesn't lie. He's the most terrible liar in the world. He stutters when he lies, and he starts looking all uncomfortable. He wouldn't lie, not to me, not about something like this…"

"What if he WAS lying? What if he was lying for a greater cause? You do know what he's like, Ginny, he's got more pride than a Hippogriff. He's probably got some terrible secret that he can't tell you about, like a terminal disease, so he lies to you and breaks up with you so he can go into a quiet corner and slowly wither…" Ginny clapped her hand over Luna's mouth before she could go into a lengthy description of Harry's hypothetical death.

"He doesn't have a terminal illness! And he's not going to die! You've been listening to too much Celestina Warbeck, Luna, all those songs are going to your head!" The thought of Harry dying still made her heart clench in fear, even though she knew she should be hating him to the core for the cheating Flobberworm he was.

"If you love him though, you should wait for him. That's what Celestina always says." Luna smiled again, her usual dreamy smile, before diving headfirst into the nearest bush, presumably in search of Nargles.

Love. The word tasted funny in Ginny's mouth as she said it out loud. It was bitter, but yet curiously sweet at the same time.

What was love?

Was it the way his laughter echoed in her ears as they lay on the lawn, empty bottles of Butterbeer scattered around them? Or was it the spark in his eyes and the curve of his lips when he broke out into a smile? Perhaps it was the way she could shout and yell and rail at him at the top of her voice one moment, and melt into his embrace the next minute.

There were too many things about him she could not forget. Still, she was sure remembering someone and loving someone were two different things. Or were they?


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Sorry for the long break in between chapters! :(

This scene takes place just before the Battle of Hogwarts.

When she saw him coming from the other end of the hallway, her first instinct was to turn around and run. She didn't know why she felt that way – why should she flee when she had done nothing wrong?

She stopped in her tracks, desperately wanting to escape the reality that was fast approaching her, but yet knowing that doing so would make her look like a complete fool.

I've just got to pretend nothing's wrong and walk past him. Treat him like a stranger, Ginny Weasley, and stop being such a wimp, she told herself fiercely as she steeled her nerves and put on her best poker face, even thought her heart was pounding louder with every step she took.

They passed each other without as much as a nod of acknowledgement and she heaved a silent sigh of relief. Just as she thought the worst was over…

"Ginny." The sound of her name seemed to linger in the stale, heavy air between them.

Don't turn around, she warned herself, walk away, and nothing will happen.

"Ginny," he said again, more quietly this time even though the sound seemed to have been magnified by a thousand times as it reverberated in the empty hallway.

She spun around despite the fact that alarm bells were ringing in her head.

"What?" She allowed her eyes to scan his wan, tired face, taking in every detail. This could very well be the last time she would ever see him and she wanted to remember everything about him, even if she was already sure she had committed everything about him into a memory she would never be able to erase.

"I don't want you to be in this battle."

"I just had this conversation with my parents, Harry and I'm not going to start it again with you. You can't stop me, Harry. We're not even… even related anymore. We're all fighting for you, so you'd better hurry up and find that diadem for us, alright? Besides, don't you already have someone else you should be caring for?"

Ginny marveled her own ability to remain emotionless in a situation like this. That last remark had even sounded a little scathing - just the way she'd hoped it would turn out to be. She hoped he wouldn't see through her pretence. He wouldn't anyway, everyone knew Harry Potter got an A for Defence Against the Dark Arts but a T for Romance.

"There is no other person, Ginny, it was a lie! I thought you would have known, or realized it, or even considered…it was always you, Ginny, always you. I made that story up so that you would give up on me – a person like me isn't worth fighting for! I don't want anyone to get hurt or die because of me, I've lost too many people I love, and I don't want you to be the next Sirius, or Dumbledore, don't you understand? I'm doing this because I…because I love you!" The truth tumbled out of Harry's mouth uncontrollably even though he was aware that the circumstances were not exactly ideal for a love confession.

We're about to fight a war, for goodness sake, he told himself. Hermione would have grabbed him by the collar and given him a good shaking, while shouting in his ear about how this was not the time to be dealing with his romantic relationships. But Hermione was not here to show him the rational side of things and he couldn't bear keeping the secret from her, not when he had seen the tell-tale flash of anguish in her eyes when she looked into his.

Realisation dawned on Ginny as she took in what he had just said. For a moment, her expression softened and she looked as if she might burst into tears.

"So this is about sacrifices?" Her voice sounded strangely high and unnatural as it echoed in the corridor.

"Well, if you think we're all fearless enough to want to die for you, Harry, you're wrong. I can't say I'm not afraid to die for you, Harry. In fact, I'm scared stiff of the possible death that awaits me, and so is everyone else in this castle." She took a deep breath, as if to calm herself down, before continuing.

" But what I'm more afraid of, is that if I don't walk in there and put on the strongest fight I can, I'll never walk out alive to see you again. Those people in there, they're fighting, not just for you, but for the entire wizarding world. If protecting me from the horrors of this war is your way of loving me, then fighting for you is my way of loving you, Harry. I don't know what other stories you've spun up in your claim to protect me, or what you said just now was truth. But what's real to me now, and has always been real, are my feelings. You can stop me from entering this battle, you can even kill Voldemort, you can do anything, but you can't prevent me from loving you and fighting for you no matter where I am."

"Ginny, I…" But he could not continue for she had pressed her lips to his in a single, fluid action, ending his sentence effectively even before it had really begun.

Blood pounding in his ears, he closed his eyes as he savoured the kiss, allowing his arms to slip around her waist, pulling her close to him. Her fingers tangled themselves in his tousled hair as her lips moulded to his in that familiar way, albeit with more enthusiasm than he had ever experienced.

After what seemed an eternity, she pulled away, gasping slightly.

"I love you, Harry Potter." She said, her eyes bright, cheeks tinged with a shade of pink visible even under the flickering candlelight in the hallway.

That sentence alone seemed to send a wave of hope surging through him. And all of a sudden, Harry Potter was sure he would win this war.


	8. Chapter 8

They arranged to meet down by the lake after everything was over.

He spotted her from afar – her flaming red hair made her hard to miss even among the groups of students milling about beside the lake. She was sitting in the shade of an enormous tree, engrossed in a book in her lap. Her long hair cascaded in a waterfall of fiery red, obscuring half her face and fluttering gently in the breeze. The sight itself made Harry's heart thump in excitement and he was suddenly thankful that he had remembered to put on his cloak before he left the Gryffindor common room. To have the whole school see him, Harry Potter – the Boy who had Miraculously Lived Again, blush like a tomato as he approached a girl was the last thing he wanted to happen.

Sneaking up to Ginny, he sat down noiselessly beside her. With a flourish, he pulled off his cloak.

"Studying again?"

Startled, Ginny jumped and turned in his direction. Realizing that it was Harry, she promptly gave him a whack on the head with her book.

"What was that for, you childish prat?" she asked crossly.

"You have no sense of humour at all. How can you be related to Fred and George, I wonder?" He replied, rubbing the spot where her book had made contact with his skin.

One more bruise to add to his already extensive collection of injuries, he lamented silently.

"You're an idiot, Harry," she remarked, turning back to her book.

"And you're a Hermione. Are you seriously studying? Now? Even Hermione, the goddess of all studying, is busy snogging Ron in the Astronomy Tower, and, you know we could be like them, if you wanted to …" Harry tried not to make the hint too obvious. After all, Ginny was a relatively smart girl…right?

"Is snogging all you have on your mind? And unlike you, Mister Potter, I do have an education to complete. Moreover, I've got loads to catch up on, since I've missed so much school this year. Not everyone takes education as lightly as you do, smarty pants."

"I do care about my education! I'm actually…actually going to come back next year and finish my seventh year! Yes, that's right! I will!" The words were out of his mouth before he realized what he had said in his reluctance to admit that Ginny was right. Harry tried his best to sound convicted as he let out an inward groan of despair. He would sooner fight a colony of Blast Ended Skrewts than have to sit through a day of lessons again.

"Stop lying through your teeth, Harry. You and I both know that's not going to happen. Only you better not let McGonagall hear you or she's going to haul you back to school next year." Ginny sighed as she closed her book.

Harry smiled sheepishly at her. Despite her fiery temper, and violent tendencies, he had to admit that she understood him quite well.

"Let's go somewhere quieter, shall we? People are starting to stare at us."

"Well, I suppose I'm quite famous now, so it's only normal that people stare? And besides, you were the one who suggested the lake…"

"Was I supposed to have foreseen that this place would be teeming with students who are all wildly curious about you? Do I look like Professor Trelawney to you? And also, I don't like people ogling my boyfriend in public, especially when I'm with him!" Ginny began pulling Harry to his feet.

Harry was about to tell her (jokingly, of course) that she looked more like Firenze instead of Trelawney, but decided at the last second that calling Ginny a centaur wasn't a very smart decision to make, and so, kept his mouth firmly closed. He didn't need another bruise in his wound collection.

"Don't open and close your mouth like that, Harry, you look like a goldfish. You've got an image to upkeep now, you know," she chided him as she dragged him towards the castle. She was surprisingly strong, he realized and wondered if she had been secretly working out during all those months when she'd been in hiding.

They slipped into the cool, airy interior of the castle and Harry immediately disappeared underneath his cloak.

"What are you doing?" Ginny hissed to the patch of air beside her.

"Hiding from the crowd! Rita Skeeter's just up ahead you know, and I'm not going to give her an interview, not for now, at least," Harry's disembodied voice hovered beside Ginny's ear in a strangely disturbing manner.

"Well, don't do that, you prat! I look like I'm talking to myself!" Ginny reached out into the air beside her, and gave Harry a hard pinch.

"OW OW OW that was my nose!" The disembodied voice rang out in the hallway as invisible Harry hopped about in agony. A group of students walking in front of them stopped and turned to stare at Ginny, who blushed furiously.

She mumbled a quick apology as she hurried down the corridor, burning with embarrassment.

You are_ so _going to get it from me, Harry Potter, she thought as she wove her way through the castle. She would have liked to give Harry's ears a painful twist in return for the trouble he had caused her, but he had somehow disappeared under the cover of his cloak. She tried to pat the air beside her discreetly, but only succeeded in attracting more curious glances.

Thoroughly frustrated, she stomped off in the direction of the Gryffindor common room. It was only when she was curled up comfortably in a squashy armchair in the unusually empty common room, wondering how she could have possibly fallen in love with such an idiotic, irresponsible and immature prat, that Harry reappeared.

"You!" She cried, leaping to her feet and pointing her wand at him. Harry jumped a mile back and raised his hands in the universal symbol of surrender. Ginny's Bat-Bogey Hexes were certainly not to be trifled with.

"You. Are. So. Dead." She thrust the wand in his face, and Harry stumbled backwards.

"C'mon Ginny, I just came back from the brink of death – you can't be wishing for me to be dead now, right?" Harry put on his best innocent face, but unfortunately, it didn't work this time around.

"Wrong." She said, taking another step towards him. But a rip in the carpet caught her shoe and she tripped, falling onto him.

Her wand soared upwards in a graceful arc and landed with a gentle thump on the carpet before rolling away and coming to a rest beneath a battered armchair. It lay there, forgotten, as its owner stared into Harry Potter's eyes.

His eyes are definitely greener than a fresh pickled toad, was her first thought as she held his gaze, noticing for the first time how she could see a faint outline of herself reflected in his eyes. She only had a moment to realize this, for it was only a matter of seconds before Harry's arms found their way around her neck and they were snogging without a care in the world.

"I told you, we're no different from Ron and Hermione," he whispered with a faint smile.

"Idiot," she said, returning his smile and thinking that maybe, The Boy who Lived wasn't that horrible a boyfriend after all.


End file.
